A bipartisan legislative commission has rejected Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposal to close two state facilities.
On a pair of 7-2 votes, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability issued non-binding decisions against shuttering the Illinois State Museum and the Department of Corrections' Hardin County Work Camp in southern Illinois.
Legislative Democrats have been in a standoff all summer over a state budget for the year that began July 1.
Rauner says he has to close the 138-year-old state museum, including the Springfield institution; artisans' galleries in Chicago, Lockport, and Rend Lake; and the Dickson Mounds burial grounds in western Illinois. Advocates say the work camp in southern Illinois is one of the region's economic engines
